The proposed research will attempt to investigate the reaction of persistently aggressive adolescent delinquents to the interpersonal messages of emotion. Effective interpersonal behavior apparently depends in large part on one's ability to recognize and respond to the emotions of others with the impact of much interpersonal communication being strongly influenced by the nonverbal emotion cues which accompany a spoken message. Such cues also seem to affect the intensity of interpersonal aggression in that a victim's emotional bearing serves as important rewards or deterrents to an aggressor. The central hypothesis of the proposed research is that delinquents who repeatedly become involved in violent acts either fail to respond, or at least respond in idiosyncratic ways, to the nonverbal emotions of others. As a result these adolescents are immune to those interpersonal cues which normally serve to both moderate aggression and provide alternative avenues of conflict resolution.